Wednesday, December 30, 2009

Idolatry

The Idol of Flaring Growth is an idol almost every Resto Druid owns by now, costing 25 Emblems of Triumph. It has a chance to grant a 234 Spellpower buff everytime Rejuvenation ticks. This proc rate is so high that often the buff will have a 100% up time with even one Rejuv ticking on a target. As soon as it procs, the buff is complete and immediate, and almost never drops off so long as Rejuv is rolling on a target. If Rejuv is rolling on two or more targets, you will never lose the buff.

The Idol of the Black Willow is an idol introduced in 3.3 and costs 30 Emblems of Frost. On every tick of Rejuvenation, the idol will grant the Druid casting it 32 Spellpower that stacks up to 8 times, granting a total of 256 Spellpower. It has no RNG; it will stack or refresh during every tick of Rejuvenation. It will have a 100% uptime so long as one Rejuv continues to tick.

It seems pretty obvious which Idol is better, as it should be. The difference is, however, only 22 Spellpower. While some argue that the ramp up effect makes the Idol of the Black Willow less appropriate for PvP, it is more reliable and less reliant on RNG (if we're talking about a single Rejuv). It is true that, once it procs, Flaring Growth has no build-up phase, but Black Willow should be easy to stack with the continuous Rejuv that should almost always be on a Druid or their partner(s).

However, as was stated earlier, the difference is only of 22 Spellpower. The Idol of the Black Willow is not a make-or-break piece as Flaring Growth was in the time of ToC. It is not a big deal to wait to pick this Idol up later, after you have completed more expensive purchases. Especially now that Emblems of Triumph are everywhere, it is more prudent to buy Flaring Growth and wait until you have no other uses for your Frost Emblems to invest in Black Willow.

So, in summary, Black Willow is obviously better, but not so much that you can't wait on it while purchasing other items with your Emblems of Frost.

Echoing previous: Yes, the Black Widow is nice, but when you can get nearly as good for far less cost, it goes to the end of wish list with Flaring Growth filling the slot until then. 25 Triumph can be acquired in a couple hours; currently, 30 Frost takes full clears of 10- and 25-man ICC available content (though this will change next week - YAY!), a raid weekly, and 5 days of doing a random heroic.

2 hours vs. 5 days. I'll take 2 hours for a tradeoff of 22 SP. Even after next week, there will still be a higher time investment - though it will be significantly less than it is today.

That's exactly what I'm doing. Gonna grab the two pieces of haste T10, then grab the idol after that. I already have the gloves and am well on my way to getting the legs (sigh...95 emblems is a lot) then I'll likely grab the idol afterwards.

I didn't read the post in time, and bought the Black Willow. It was a huge cost and I have been drolling over the T-10's since they came out, but I figured that I needed the buff. Well I love it! It is up for every fight, the buff stacks beautifully. I totaly love this idol! Yes I probably should have waited, but I've got it now and it is really great!

May i just point out that if you are going to roll a 3 stack of LB the spell power used to calculate the actual healing amount is taken at the point of the first cast. Only after the stack has bloomed and is reapplied will the calculation with SP be done again.

If Flaring Growth has proc'ed you have the extra spell power for the stack

With Black Widow it may not have got up to full power before you start loading up the stacks.

Therefore with FG you can spot the proc and load up the stack but with BW you would need to wait till fully loaded for it to be most productive.

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The Authors

Bellwether is a level 80 Druid on Dark Iron (PvP - US). She has experience in endgame raids, PvP and arena as a Restoration spec'd Healer. She also has knowledge on many other aspects of the druid class, including the other talent trees. Her alts include a Ret Paladin named Bellbell with a bitchin' attitude, and many ickle alties.Contact Information:E-mail: 4haelz AT gmail DOT comAIM: JuiceboxDaniMSN: bellwetherdani@live.comSubscribe to 4 Haelz!Picture provided by the lovely Phaelia of Resto4Life.

Sannhet is a Level 80 Ret Paladin, Frost DK and perhaps soon Warrior with an attitude and an occasional bone to pick. He loves to debate and hopefully he'll write in here to tell you how awesome he is (he's very awesome). He's been referred to on this blog before as "Button."